"We think it is not safe to return them to Syria now," the FMS official stressed.

However, Russian authorities do not obstruct the voluntary return of these people to Syria or their departure for third countries.

Federal Migration Service deputy head Nikolai Smorodin said at the meeting that more than 1,200 Syrians had asked Russia for temporary refuge.

Federal Migration Service Moscow department chief Olga Kirillova said on January 22 that the flow of refugees from Syria had been growing.

The FMS administration refuted on December 9, 2013, claims of human rights activists about mass deportation of Syrian citizens seeking refuge in Russia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on October 16, 2013, that 50,000 Syrian Christians living in the Damascus province had asked Russia for citizenship.

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